Potential
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) In the theory of gravitation, or of other forces acting in space, a function of the rectangular coordinates which determine the position of a point, such that its differential coefficients with respect to the coordinates are equal to the components of the force at the point considered; - also called potential function, or force function. It is called also Newtonian potential when the force is directed to a fixed center and is inversely as the square of the distance from the center.
(2): ( n.) The energy of an electrical charge measured by its power to do work; hence, the degree of electrification as referred to some standard, as that of the earth; electro-motive force.
(3): ( a.) Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
(4): ( n.) Anything that may be possible; a possibility; potentially.
(5): ( a.) Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
is opposed to actual. This antithesis is a fundamental doctrine of the Peripatetic philosophy. "Aristotle saith that divided they (i.e. bodies) be in infinitum potentially, but actually not" (Holland's Plutarch, p. 667). "Anaximander's infinite was nothing else but an infinite chaos of matter, in which were either actually or potentially contained all manner of qualities" (see Cudworth, Intellectual System, 1, 128).
